Ben's Blog

Let’s start with some historical background. Latin America was colonized by Spain. When the conquistadors arrived they encountered ‘civilized’ societies, in many ways more sophisticated and developed than Europe at the time, though they were a bit obsessed with human sacrifice. Crucially, the colonizers did not want land, they wanted gold. (They had no desire to extirpate the local population like other  Europeans did in North America, committing over 1,000 genocides of separate indigenous groups, a world record that is still held to this day.) In Latin America it turned out to be quite easy to just replace both the Aztec and Inca leaders with Spanish figureheads. Consequently, Latin America was never de-stocked and replaced with white people. Most Latinos are now of mixed race as well as many intact indigenous cultures.  But the entire continent has suffered from intractable poverty and inequality for 500 years. The Spaniards took the gold and silver and the US took the rest. Now there just isn’t enough wealth to go round, so the aristocracy takes it all and leaves nothing for the poor, so naturally the poor occasionally rebel and demand their fair share. The wealthy elite have devised a cunning strategy to thwart their every wish, with more than a little help from their powerful neighbor to the North.

From time to time a socialist will gain power somewhere in Latin America and begin to redistribute the meagre resources of the nation. The existential anxiety this sets off in the aristocracy fills them with such terror that they actually stop making money! They deliberately set about sabotaging their own economy, while their accomplices in the US cut off all sources of credit, then they wait. As the economy slumps further and further into the doldrums, the people get angrier and angrier and end up turning against the socialists.

This is not democracy, it is terrorism!

Voters are terrified of the consequenses if they vote for the socialists. So the aristocracy win government in a ‘free and fair election’, the production line leaps into action, the money flows in once more and it’s back to business as usual, this is called ‘democracy.’ It is such a time honoured ritual that any fledgling socialist leader need only a friendly chat with the US ambassador for them to see the folly of their fantasies. But there is always the occasional dissident who will not buckle under pressure. Hugo Chavez was one such leader. Rather than take the inevitable hit at the ballot box and return to obscurity, he upped the anti and rejigged an electoral system that was stacked against him. This gave the US the excuse they wanted to impose crippling sanctions on the entire nation, plunging it into an economic depression that unleashed mass hunger. No populace can withstand such suffering for long, no matter how loyal they are. At this point a revolutionary movement has two stark choices: throw in the towel and admit that the power of money is overwhelming and equality is unachievable, or abandon the façade of democracy and commit to an armed defense of the revolution. Either way you are screwed. If you choose the military option you become easy prey for the US, a nation that thrives on military conflict, like a vampire thrives on blood.

…and the entire western world shrugs its shoulders and says, “a well, we don’t like wars, but we don’t like dictators either, so good riddance.”

Further reading….

Venezuela – War of the Entire People